Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Carmy]

If you think about your own childhood relative to your school life, can you honestly say it was as bad as the Korean kids school lives are?
Imagine having to think about school ALL of the time? No time for playing and using your imagination, interacting with kids on a level outside of school confinements.
I remember when I came home after my first teaching stint in Korea, I told all my little cousins and siblings that they should be grateful to have such easy school lives. Yes they get their fare share of homework, projects and assignments but they also get enough time to just chill out and spend time doing other things.
Also how healthy is it for one�s brain to be learning and studying non-stop.
I remember a particularly bright little kindy girl I taught, she was adorable and clever as heck, learning Hangul (obviously), English AND Mandarin at the same time. She was four!

[ChuckECheese]

You forgot piano, violin , ballet, and art lessons.

Yes, I do feel sorry for the kids.

[cdninkorea]

One of my students has 5 tutors. He's 8 years old.

One for Korean, cello, math, and two for English (one of them is a hagwon, where I'm his teacher).

Surprisingly, he's very enthusiastic and motivated. Maybe he really does enjoy it? He'd have good reason not to though, and if he did, yeah I'd feel bad for him.

[Scouse Mouse]

I do but for different reasons. Most of the kids I teach are from very poor families. One guy has his name sewn on to his blazer in a very obviously 'home-made' fashion, and his glasses only have one arm...

they do seem to have a lot of fun though... after every break between classes I see 2 or 3 kids limping or being carried to the nurses room

[RACETRAITOR]

I feel bad for them all the time. Imagine having to go to school on Saturday morning.

[Scouse Mouse]

[princess]

Yes, I feel sorry for them. All they do is study. I teach one kindy boy who only sees his Dad on weekends. He gets dropped off at the hagwon over an hour before the teachers and other kids get there, because his Mom has to go to work and he says he is sleepy almost everyday. I taught a kindy boy in 2004, whose parents got divorced and wanted nothing to do with him, so he lived with his grandparents. They did show up for his parent observation class day, though. I teach one elementary girl, who goes to school all day, comes to the English hagwon, then goes to the art hagwon, plus on some days her math teacher goes to her house. One day she told me she didn't want to go home because no one would be there except her baby sister. Mom and Dad I guess are too busy making money to keep up with the Kims. She also has a piano recital coming up. She told me she stayed home from school yesterday but she had no lunch. Was Mom that busy that her 9 year old daughter couldn't be served some lunch???

[andy202]

Feel sorry for the kids?

No.

Children adjust well to their environment and Korean kids are fully on terms with their manic study schedule.

I guess I only have my own experiences as a Hagwon teacher to go by, but I feel that the children in Korea are mostly happy, confident and outgoing, unphased by the seventeen books in their backpack.

Those who are not happy tend to be suffering from a sense of alienation, failing to understand their role or lacking a sense of identity. They know the score and they can pull their weight but they don't understand the cause or the reason for it. These are the same thoughtful, lonely little people that exist in every society, throughout the world, young and old.

Either way, the majority of kids in my school are rude and demanding. A constructive outlet for their energy is exactly what they need. It's just a shame that so much private education in Korea is a set-up, all for show, and doesn't really benefit the kid at all, despite the lengthy hours they put in.

[DRAMA OVERKILL]

"Thank you teacher! I love you! Now I have to go to piano, art, and math hakwon before I go home and do homework... Maybe game next week, please???" - Yeah, feel sorry...

"TEACHER!!! PLAY GAME!!!!!! WHAT??? NO GAME TODAY?????? HMPH!!!! You hakwon English teacher, MY father is dancer!!! HMPH!!! " - No, don't feel sorry...

[Privateer]

Yes I feel sorry for the kids. Especially after they get to middle school. Elementary school kids are happy to be busy doing anything.

I still feel sorry for the elementary school kids for all the stuff they miss out on, but not as much as the older ones.

[MollyBloom]

I feel bad for the little ones, but not for the older ones. I teach middle school, but got handed two elementary classes. One cute kid pulled down his lip one day. "Teecha, look what I have..." "Andrew, what happened?" "My doctor says I get sores from not sleeping and feeling stress about school."

Ughhh. It was so sad.

[passport220]

It seems the kids have a full schedule, but what is really demanded of them during that time? For some with truly demanding parents I think it must be stressful. However, I see so many kids just screwing around during class time, I am not sure what to think.

If I walk down the hall during regular classes at my middle school it is not uncommon to hear teachers using a microphone and speaker to give a class lecture. Normal size classrooms but a microphone is needed to be heard over the sounds of the class talking and screwing off. A lot of time spent in class, but how much of it is studying and how much of is it reading comic books, playing with cell phones, goofing off with friends and sleeping? All of these actives are obviously banned in class, but I see it all the time. No matter what they do, they will be graduated on to the next level next year, and they know it.

[JongnoGuru]

I say feel sorry for them now if you want, but save most of your pity for yourselves once these little sleep-deprived, over-achieving, hagwon-attending, Saturday class-going, Mandarin & English & Hangul & Cello-learning study-monkeys come of age and take over the world. For your children shall be painted green and shining the shoes of the next generation of the super-brainy Korean Master Race.

Discuss. But only if you agree with me.

[caniff]

[princess]